It looks like several people, including me, have asked recently how
to create an optional shortcut -- that is, how to create a shortcut
that is only installed if a checkbox is checked in the UI. Thanks to
some private help from another member of the list (who can identify
himself if he'd like to), I now have a solution that seems to be
working. I thought I would share it with the list.
Please understand that I am fairly new to both WiX and Windows
Installer, so some of this information may be inaccurate. I welcome
corrections to my understanding of what's going on and improvements
to the technique.
The basic idea is to place the shortcut in a separate component, and
then conditionalize the component. There are a couple of tricks,
however.
First, choose a unique property name that will control installation
of the shortcut. You probably want to name this property in all
capital letters so that it is a public property, and can be set on
the command line. I chose INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT. If you want the
shortcut to be installed by default, then include the line:
<Property Id="INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT" Value="1"/>
If you don't want the shortcut to be installed by default, then leave
this property out. Note that setting the property to "0" is NOT
equivalent to leaving it unset.
Next, add a user interface for setting the property. If you are
using the standard WiX UI library, you may need to create a local
copy of your chosen dialog in order to modify it. In my case, I
modified the InstallDirDlg and added:
<Control Id="DesktopShortcutCheckBox" Type="CheckBox"
X="20" Y="160" Width="290" Height="17"
Property="INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT" CheckBoxValue="1"
Text="Create a shortcut for this program on the desktop."/>
If you are generating installers in multiple languages, you may want
to use a localization variable rather than hard-wiring the text of
the control.
Next, if you don't already have a Directory element for the folder
where the shortcut will be placed, create one. In my case, I want
the shortcut on the desktop so I created the element:
<Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop"/>
directly under the toplevel Directory element of my installer.
Next, add a new conditional component for your shortcut. This is one
of the tricky parts to get right, both because the shortcut needs to
point to a file in a different component, and because you need to
create an artificial object to act as the KeyPath of the component.
In this case, we create an otherwise unnecessary registry key to act
as the KeyPath of the component, but an empty file would probably
also work. The exact path to the registry key is not important, but
it should be unique and be in the conventional HKCU/Software/Company/
Product area of the registry. This component should be an XML
sibling to the component that it will be targeting. In my case, it
looks like this:
<Component Id="DesktopShortcut" Guid="...">
<Condition>INSTALLDESKTOPSHORTCUT</Condition>
<CreateFolder/>
<RegistryKey Root="HKCU" Key="Software\Llamagraphics\Life Balance
\Install"
Action="createAndRemoveOnUninstall">
<RegistryValue Name="DTSC" Value="1" Type="integer" KeyPath="yes"/>
</RegistryKey>
<Shortcut Id="DesktopShortcut" Directory="DesktopFolder"
Name="Life Balance" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLDIR"
Icon="Application.ico" Target="[#Life_Balance.exe]"/>
</Component>
Note that "Life_Balance.exe" is the Id of the File element that I
want the shortcut to point to. Of course, you should substitute your
own company, product, and file ids for the ones I have used here.
Lastly, you need to add the new component to the same feature that
installs the target of the shortcut:
<ComponentRef Id="DesktopShortcut"/>
When you run Light to link the installer, you will get an ICE69
warning that your shortcut targets a file in a different component.
You can safely ignore this warning, since both components are in the
same feature and will always be installed together.
I hope this information will save somebody out there some time and
trouble.
Best wishes,
--Stuart A. Malone
Llamagraphics, Inc.
Makers of Life Balance personal coaching software
http://www.llamagraphics.com/
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